Technology in the News

Technology is constantly changing and providing the casual user with
challenges never dreamed of. Technology in the News is provided in an
effort to assist you in getting the most out of your computer, while
avoiding some of the pitfalls. Your computer really isn't out to get
you. Why not learn to be friends?

Melinda Kiss of Long Island, New York, was married on June 6 to her longtime sweetheart, Bob Flecker.

When she returned home from her honeymoon she finally decided to update her name on Facebook to reflect her married name. When she logged in and made the request to go by "Melinda Kiss Flecker" instead of just "Melinda Kiss," she was immediately stopped by Facebook. "I went to click enter," Kiss told Business Insider in an email, "and I couldn't. It was grayed out..."

Imagine if the conservative media had to include every fact that makes liberals look good in every story that makes liberals look bad. What if attorney-client privilege didn't exist for lawyers providing advice to conservative publications?

Imagine if those contacted by a conservative journalist were dragged into depositions by a liberal plaintiff. Imagine if the liberal plaintiff subpoenaed writers for conservative publications who covered her case. These actions would be a way to silence and chill the increasingly powerful conservative media, and it's exactly what is happening in former Obama political appointee Shirley Sherrod's lawsuit against Andrew Brietbart's widow and radio talk show host Larry O'Connor.

A security feature offered by PayPal to help prevent accounts from being taken over by hackers can be easily circumvented, an Australian security researcher has found.

PayPal users can elect to receive a six-digit passcode via text message in order to access their accounts. The number is entered after a username and password is submitted. The security feature, known as two-factor authentication, is an option on many online services such as Google and mandatory on many financial services websites for certain kinds of high-risk transactions. Since the code is sent offline or generated by a mobile application, it is much more difficult for hackers to intercept although by no means impossible.

Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday to demand 'a serious investigation' -- something he said has been lacking.

Former senior IRS official Lois Lerner had deeply held political biases while she was in a position of authority, according to Republican lawmakers who unveiled emails on Wednesday showing her referring to conservatives as 'crazies' and 'a**holes.' Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, who chairs the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder to demand what he called 'a serious investigation' - something he said has been lacking. Camp wants Holder to appoint an outside special counsel to probe the culture of the IRS and explain why hundreds of conservative groups were subjected to intrusive questioning and years-long delays when they applied for nonprofit tax benefits - steps that were not taken against liberal organizations.

US law can apply anywhere in the world, so long as a technology company has control over foreign data, a court rules.

A US judge has ordered Microsoft to hand over foreign data it stores back to the US, despite allegedly strong privacy protections in Europe to mitigate such processes. The logic of the court is that because the US-headquartered software giant controls the data it stores overseas, its foreign subsidiary companies are just as applicable to US law. US District Judge Loretta Preska in New York said the ruling will be stayed to allow Microsoft to appeal the decision to an appeals court. "It is a question of control, not a question of the location of that information," Preska said in the ruling.

The Department of Justice sees its takedown of the billion-dollar Silk Road black market as a massive, victorious drug bust.

Ross Ulbricht, the alleged creator of that anonymous contraband bazaar, now wants to cast the case in a different light: as a landmark example of the government trampling privacy rights in the digital world. In a pre-trial motion filed in the case late Friday night, Ulbricht's lawyers laid out a series of arguments to dismiss all charges in the case based on Ulbricht's fourth amendment protections against warrantless searches of his digital property. As early as the FBI's initial discovery of servers in Iceland hosting the site on the Tor anonymity network-seemingly without obtaining a search warrant from a judge-Ulbricht argues that law enforcement violated his constitutional right to privacy, tainting all further evidence against him dug up in the investigation that followed.

The Bureau of Investigative Justice (BIJ) has compiled a list of more than 700 names of people killed in U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan-representing less than a third of known casualties.

The BIJ says 323 of those names are of civilians and classifies each victim as a "reported civilian" or "alleged militant," based on interviews conducted in Pakistan and combing through media reports and Pakistani government documents. Of the 323 "reported civilians," 99 are children. The BIJ explains: Senior US officials have described drones as highly precise weapons that target and kill enemies of the US. John Brennan, who oversaw the development of the drone campaign and is now director of the CIA, has called drone technology an 'essential tool' for its 'surgical precision - the ability, with laser-like focus, to eliminate the cancerous tumour called an al Qaeda terrorist while limiting damage to the tissue around it.'

The House on Wednesday approved a highly contentious lawsuit against President Obama over his alleged abuse of executive power, teeing up an election-year legal battle sure to spill onto the midterm campaign trail.

The House backed the lawsuit resolution on a vote of 225-201, with all Democrats opposed. Republicans say the lawsuit is necessary to keep the president in constitutional check, after he allegedly exceeded his authority with unilateral changes to the Affordable Care Act. Democrats branded the effort a political charade aimed at stirring up GOP voters for this fall's congressional elections. They also said it's an effort by top Republicans to mollify conservatives who want Obama to be impeached -- something House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said he has no plans to do.

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